Sunday, November 30, 2008

It seems that the Sunday Mirror has a fascinating report from a report who just happened to be sitting one seat in front of Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg. It really is worth a read (thanks to Green Gordon for the tip).Among things we find out are;

some of those he himself appointed to his cabinet he regards as "useless" and "not equipped" for leading roles.

he plans to demote former leadership rival Chris Huhne.

his personal dislike for his environment secretary. “He’s a problem. I can’t stand the man. We need a new spokesman. We have to move him. We need someone with good ideas. At the moment, they just don’t add up.” However he couldn't be ditched entirely lest he become a "voice for the left".

his local government spokeswoman get "patronised" in her current role so has to be moved.

he's up for a coalition government, but only if the Tories lose the next election.

I was also amused catching a snippet of this today. I think it was broadcast on the 26th November "15-Minute Musical" on Radio 4.

"Later episodes include: Papa Mia, in which Piers Morgan discovers that his father is one of three reality show judges; Cleggerella, in which the unloved Nick Clegg is granted three make-over wishes; and Ramsey Todd, which sees the demon chef of Fleet Street find a new ingredient to make his pies the talk of London town."

We knew that Blair and Brown grew to hate each other, but they never were overheard on a commuter plane saying so. The obvious thing for Clegg to do is to sue the Sunday Mirror and pray they didn't have tapes. Otherwise, he's admitting that it's mostly truthy.

I'm disappointed at the lack of response from the Green Party, and GP bloggers, apart from Richard Lawson, but that's a very selective quote from Caroline.

Question on Question Time (last Friday, Radio 4):

"We've just seen over the past two days on the news about the terrorist attacks in India. This follows the terrorist attacks of 9/11, 7/7, the Madrid bombings, Bali bombings and many others. Can extremist ever be defeated?"

Caroline's answer:

"Let me first say in response to the situation in Mumbai that it's clearly a terrible act of terror, our thoughts are very much with the families there. It's a criminal act and the perpetrators must be brought to justice. In terms of whether there is a way of defeating extremism, my answer very clearly would be not by military means. I think all the evidence we've seen from Iraq and Afghanistan right across the board that you don't bring peace through the barrel of a gun. I think that when you see many people seeing that the war on terror hasn't made us safer - it's been interpreted by many as a war on Muslims and I think that's enormously damaging. I think what we should be doing is looking at some of the root causes of some of the terrorist acts we see - not to condone it but I do think that we have to try to understand it, and I think that the situation in Palestine for example, with the ongoing Israeli occupation with the absolute strangulation of Gaza with this siege on Gaza - essentially this economic blockade - is really feeding so much anger right across the world and it means that there is more of a fertile breeding ground then for extremists to flourish. So I think that if we are to defeat extremism then we have to go to the root causes of it - we have to look in particular at how marginalised communities are being treated, we have to look in particular about countries like Palestine."

i) Should she have used the illustration of Palestine?

No.

ii) Should she have used Kashmir instead?

Yes.

iii) Should she have talked about the disenfrachisement of Muslims in India, and linked that to lesser employment opportunities and systematic discrimination in England towards Muslims?

Yes.

iv) Did she say that the Mumbai bombings was down to Palestine?

Don't be silly. She talked about discrimination against Muslims, and talked about a situation that she was much more familiar with, Palestine, as an example of discontent leading to a pool of people who can be radicalised.

Personally I don't know very much about it - so I thought I'd break the habit of a lifetime and wait until I knew more before offering an opinion - although you're right Scott it's interesting that almost all the Green bloggers have held their fire on this one.

On Caroline - I thought her answer was fine and part of a really excellent performance of Any Questions. Kashmir would have been a much better example though.

One interesting point that whilst Caroline talked of "looking at some of the root causes of some of the terrorist acts" quite rightly the questioner basicly said we should address the terrorists concerns - which sounds similar but is in fact quite wrong.

If the terrorists want to kill all Jews then fuck their demands - but you can still address the swamp of poverty and injustice that nurtures that hate without giving even an inch to the terrorists anti-semitism - ofr example.

However, I'm inclined to think the questioner was guilty of sloppy thinking rather than malice, or sympathising with terrorists. Could be wrong on that of course.

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